1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to amusement attractions and rides. More particularly, the disclosure generally relates to a system and method for an amusement ride. Further, the disclosure generally relates to amusement rides featuring systems and methods for conveying participants between different areas of an amusement park in a safe and efficient manner. The amusement ride may include water features and/or elements.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The 80's decade has witnessed phenomenal growth in the participatory family water recreation facility, i.e., the waterpark, and in water oriented ride attractions in the traditional themed amusement parks. The main current genre of water ride attractions, e.g., waterslides, river rapid rides, and log flumes, and others, require participants to walk or be mechanically lifted to a high point, wherein, gravity enables water, participant(s), and riding vehicle (if appropriate) to slide down a chute or incline to a lower elevation splash pool, whereafter the cycle repeats.
Generally speaking, the traditional downhill water rides are short in duration (normally measured in seconds of ride time) and have limited throughput capacity. The combination of these two factors quickly leads to a situation in which patrons of the parks typically have long queue line waits of up to two or three hours for a ride that, although exciting, lasts only a few seconds. Additional problems like hot and sunny weather, wet patrons, and other difficulties combine to create a very poor overall customer feeling of satisfaction or perceived entertainment value in the waterpark experience. Poor entertainment value in waterparks as well as other amusement parks is rated as the biggest problem of the waterpark industry and is substantially contributing to the failure of many waterparks and threatens the entire industry.
Water parks also suffer intermittent closures due to inclement weather. Depending on the geographic location of a water park, the water park may be open less than half of the year. Water parks may be closed due to uncomfortably low temperatures associated with winter. Water parks may be closed due to inclement weather such as rain, wind storms, and/or any other type of weather conditions which might limit participant enjoyment and/or participant safety. Severely limiting the number of days a water park may be open naturally limits the profitability of that water park.
The phenomenal growth of water parks in the past few decades has witnessed an evolution in water-based attractions. In the '70s and early '80s, these water attractions took the form of slides from which a participant started at an upper pool and slid by way of gravity passage down a serpentine slide upon recycled water to a lower landing pool. U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,301 to Meyers discloses such a slide dug into the side of a hill. U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,043 to Timbes and U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,900 to Becker et al. disclose such slides supported on a structure. Each of these slides only allowed essentially one-dimensional movement from the upper pool, down the slide to the lower pool. Consequently, the path taken down the slide always remained the same thus limiting the sense of novelty and the unexpected for the participant after multiple uses.
Cognizant of this limitation in traditional water slides, new water attractions were developed which inserted a little more of the element of chance during the ride. One such attraction has up to twelve people seated within a circular floating ring being propelled down a flume comprising a series of man-made rapids, water falls and timed water spouts. As the floating ring moves down the path of the water attraction, contact with the sides of the flume cause the ring to rotate thus moving certain people in closer proximity to the “down-river” side of the rapids, the water falls and the spouts. Those people who were closest to such features of the water ride tended to get the most wet. Since such movement was determined mostly by chance, each participant had an equal chance of getting drenched throughout the ride by any one of the many water ride features.
This later type of ride, though an improvement over the traditional water slide, was still essentially a one-dimensional travel from an upper start area down to a lower start area where all features came into play. Furthermore, each of these features were either continuously active (such as the water fall) or automatically activated by the proximity of the floating ring to the feature.
The popularity of these types of rides has resulted in very long lines at such water parks. Observers, such as those waiting in line for the water ride, could not interact (except verbally) with those participants on the ride. Consequently, the lasting memory at such parks may not be about the rides at the park, but the long lines and waiting required to use the rides.
Traditional floatation devices used in amusement/water parks include such vehicles as inner tubes, floating boards, and/or other floatation devices upon which one or more riders may float. Unfortunately the traditional floatation devices do not translate well to rides or portions of rides, which do not incorporate water as a means for propelling a vehicle and/or at least decreasing the coefficient of friction between the vehicle and the track. It would be advantageous to incorporate a vehicle into amusement rides which moved equally as well along tracks/courses incorporating water as well as tracks/courses which do not incorporate water. This might reduce costs associated with using water in amusement park rides as well as add additional dimensions to the enjoyment of the ride.
Vehicles typically used for amusements rides and especially water-based amusement rides are typically mere modes of transportation. The track (e.g., channel) typically provides the preponderance of enjoyment or amusement associated with a ride. The shape and/or design of the vehicle itself do not typically add any aspect of enjoyment to the ride. Vehicles which allowed, and even encouraged, participants within the vehicle to interact with the amusement ride environment would add another dimension to amusement rides in general and water amusement ride specifically.